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Rock Band Network Announced

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

July 18, 2009

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Harmonix and MTV Games have unveiled plans to launch the Rock Band Network, a new initiative enabling artists and record labels to author their own original recordings into gameplay files and sell their music as playable tracks.

Rock Band Network will work with Rock Band 2 and be native to Xbox 360, plus users will need to be members of Microsoft’s XNA Creators Club Online.

The service is currently in closed beta and is due to enter open beta in the States in late August 2009. “Stand out tracks will follow” on the PS3 and Wii, according to the announcement, but “all songs will debut exclusively on Xbox 360 for 30 days.”



"Our goal with Rock Band has always been to go beyond making music games and create a true music platform," said Alex Rigopulos, CEO and co-founder of Harmonix. "With the Rock Band Network, we've evolved the platform to its next logical step, giving players access to an incredible amount of new music by putting the professional tools we use in the hands of the artists themselves."

The Rock Band franchise had shipped over ten million units worldwide as of February. The latest series entry, PSP-only Rock Band Unplugged, released in June and is reviewed here.


OmegaVader's picture
On July 18th OmegaVader said:

despite being the major RB fan that I am, this makes me wary. Worst case scenario: RB is flooded with bad music and amatuerish note charts (the latter of which would be the loss of the best advantage RB has over GH). I know Harmonix doesn't have the manpower to mass produce tracks, but it's worth waiting for it to be done right rather than to have it done right *now*.

N1njaSquirrel's picture
On July 20th N1njaSquirrel said:

there is a free demo available for every song. so whether you'll be happy with the charts is easy as playing a demo of the song. seems fair enough.
i'm just worried that harmonix will then stop releasing official charts of songs.
+ the potential to have ikimonogakari's bluebird on rockband is too awesome to complain about.

MilesMayhem's picture
On July 19th MilesMayhem said:

that concern could be off-set with a user rating system?

OmegaVader's picture
On July 20th OmegaVader said:

Someone still has to be burned into buying the tracks and discovering for others that they are terrible. Worse, what if legitimately good songs come out but are charted poorly by these 'harmonix-trained' fellows? The wariness continues...

I coulld be wrong. maybe harmonix trained them to be equals. But pessimism is so overpowering. I'll keep my fingers cross....though superstition never helped anyone. Ahhhh!

mentor07825's picture
On July 19th mentor07825 said:

Definately.

It would at least inform the users on what's good and what isn't.